Tuesday, 29 September 2015

The hypocrisy (read 'lies') of Mahmoud Abbas in the face of facts on the ground.

The Palestinian Authority allows the desecration of mosques on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. They incite Muslims to slaughter Jews at prayer in Jerusalem synagogues.Now they are silent over the Palestinian destruction of a Bethlehem church.And Abbas has the chutzpah to blame Israel.

Gabriel Naddaf, spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, wrote on his Facebook: “I call to strongly condemn the burning of the holy Church ‘St. Charbel’ burned tonight in Bethlehem by Palestinian extremists. I condemn in the strongest terms the powerlessness of the Palestinian Authority in maintaining the holy places of Christians in Palestinian territories. I call PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas to handle the hazardous events seriously and with severity instead of preaching morality to Israel.”According to Christian community leaders in Bethlehem, the fire was started by extremist Islamists who for months have been threatening community members with harm. As a result of the fire, several rooms on the church’s second floor were completely destroyed. No one was killed or injured.Sources quoted by Naddaf said that the fire was just another in a long series of attacks by Muslims against Christians in Bethlehem. “The PA tries to sweep these incidents under the rug but it never condemns these acts, which interfere with freedom of religion,” the sources said. Before PA chief Mahmoud Abbas “lectures Israel on its morality, he should look at his own responsibilities and deal with them appropriately,” Naddaf wrote.Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on Facebook;“I am proud that the Christian community in Israel has grown each year. Unfortunately, across the Middle East, that trend happens only in Israel. In many other parts of our region, the Christian community is persecuted and attacked. Even in the territories of the Palestinian Authority, including Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, the Christian community is shrinking every year"Strangely silent also are anti-Israel, BDS-supporting, church leaders who attack the Jewish state at every opportunity but remain dumb when their churches under Palestinian control are destroyed and their co-religionists intimidated and attacked.Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israeli Institute of Strategic Studies.